Mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablet computers are becoming more widely used every day. A variety of popular mobile operating systems are used on a number of different mobile platforms. For example, Apple's iOS (formerly known as iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system that runs on Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad. Many apps for iOS are available for download from Apple's App Store. Android is an open-source, Linux based operating system for mobile devices. Many Android apps are available either for purchase or for free through Google Play (formerly known as Android Market). Android apps can also be downloaded from other online stores and additional third-party sites. Another example is Windows Phone, which is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, which runs on smartphones from vendors such as Nokia, Acer and Fujitsu. Users can download apps for Windows Phone from the Windows Phone Marketplace, which is run by Microsoft. iOS, Android and Windows Phone are just examples of currently popular mobile operating systems, but others exist as well.
Mobile computing devices are typically equipped with certain popular features, such as a web browser, a digital camera and apps to manage a library of photographs and videos, sound input/output hardware and apps for managing a library of audio recordings, apps for interacting with social media sites, apps for reading print media, etc. Some apps for mobile computing devices provide services to users based on current physical location. One of two mechanisms can be used to determine the current physical location of a mobile computing device in order to provide location based services. These mechanisms can be classified as providing either “fine” or “coarse” positions respectively. Fine location data is provided by Global Positioning System (“GPS”) receivers on the mobile computing devices, whereas coarse location data is provided by WiFi triangulation and/or cell tower triangulation. An example of an app that tracks the location of a mobile device to provide user services is a mapping app which displays the device's current location on a map and shows restaurants, business and other attractions that are in the area. Some social networking applications track the positions of members and their friends, show places where members have been, indicate their current positions, and show when friends are located close to each other. Anti-theft apps track a mobile device's location, so that if the device is stolen or lost and later recovered, the location history can be used to determine where the device has been from the time of disappearance to the time of recovery.
An app that track mobile device location information must be installed on the device before it can start tracking location information. Additionally, once the app has been installed, it can be shutdown, denied location information, and under some mobile operating systems such as iOS, cannot be forced to auto-start. Apps cannot track the location of a device during periods of time when the app is not being run, nor before the app has been installed, nor when location services are denied to the app. This results in gaps in location history for apps that track locations of mobile computing devices.
It would be desirable to address these issues.